New HPD squad tackles violent crime in dark of night - Houston Chronicle

Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle

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Members of Houston Police's Squad 13 responded to a disturbance call between two men on the 5200 block of Reed Road Thursday, June 29, 2017, in Houston. One man was shot in the neck and transported to Ben Taub Hospital. less

Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle

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Lt. Warren Meeler oversees "Squad 13," an overnight unit that chases nonlethal crime.

Photo: St. John Barned-Smith

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Tomas Gonzalez-Turquiz (H/m, 24) is charged with aggravated assault- serious bodily injury, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and assault of a family member. All cases are in the 178th State District Court. He is one of the first people arrested by the Lucky 13 unit of the HPD less

Photo: Houston Police Department

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Monte Justus Pounds (w/m, 35) is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the 263rd State District Court. He is one of the first people arrested by the Lucky 13 unit of the HPD

Photo: Houston Police Department

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Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle

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Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle

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Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Houston Chronicle

Squad 13 made its first case a week ago: charging a 24-year-old man with shooting another man who tried to intervene in a domestic dispute.

The Houston Police Department's new overnight investigative unit arrived shortly after the 1 a.m.shooting on June 25, canvassing witnesses and scouring the southwest Houston apartment complex for the shooter.

As paramedics rushed the injured man to Ben Taub Hospital, Squad 13 investigators found Tomas Gonzalez-Turquiz - and the weapon they believe he used.

The arrest marked the debut of the new squad, tasked with chasing down criminals responsible for thousands of serious but nonlethal aggravated assaults, robberies, shootings and other violent crimes that play out at night on the streets of Houston each year.

It also reflects a serious shift in HPD's efforts to fight gun violence and other serious crimes overlooked in years past while homicide investigators focused on fatalities.

"It's common sense," said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who has made fighting gun crime a top priority. "You can't have detectives and investigators not rolling on aggravated assaults. Aggravated assaults are just a failed murder."

Guns claimed more than 400 lives in Houston through homicide or suicide, and firearms were used in at least another 5,450 aggravated assaults in 2016, according to police data.

Much of the crime happens at night.

"The only crooks that work banker hours are Enron execs and bank robbers," said Larry Karson, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston-Downtown. "Having investigators respond around-the-clock means that they have a chance to immediately locate witnesses at the scene and do field interviews instead of trying to find witnesses a day or two later based only on a busy patrol officer's report."

Next time could be murder

The new investigators will augment the 15 detectives and homicide sergeants on Squad 8, the homicide division's overnight murder squad.

"It really is something we need," said Lt. Warren Meeler, who will oversee the new unit. "We have a lot of shootings we just didn't have the capacity to make before … There's a lot of shootings out there that are just a millimeter away from being a murder."

Homicide investigators previously responded only to lethal shootings or violent crimes where a victim's death was imminent. Overnight assault cases could sometimes lag for hours before being handed off by patrol officers to investigators.

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Meeler recruited the members of the new unit from a pool of 33 applicants. The new squad's most junior member is a 2-year patrol officer; the most experienced has worked in law enforcement for 21 years.

Four officers started working in late June and the unit should be close to full strength by mid-July, he said.

Investigators will also help the murder squad handle large scenes, and their work will groom them for openings in the future.

"They're going to get vast amounts of experience - with living victims," Meeler said. "And one day, when they're ready to move, to transition to a murder squad, there's no learning curve."

A similar unit that had responded to a more diverse range of cases was disbanded last year - before Acevedo took the top job - in an effort to shift more officers to patrol.

Joseph Gamaldi, vice president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, said the organization supports the new unit but believes the city needs to hire more officers.

"We feel it's a more proactive approach to investigating aggravated assaults," Gamaldi said. "Crime is up in this city and we hope deploying this unit will help reduce violent crime in the city, considering we're 1,500 officers short."

The 'Lucky 13'

The explosion of violence that Sunday happened just outside a southwest Houston apartment.

Two men confronted Gonzalez-Turquiz after they saw him assaulting a family member, police said. He then pulled out a pistol and tried to shoot the first man, but the gun misfired. He then pointed the weapon at the other man and shot him, according to investigators.

The victim was taken to the hospital in stable condition, but additional details about his condition were not available.

Gonzalez-Turquiz faces aggravated assault and family violence charges. Court records show he has been arrested twice before in Harris County on trespassing charges - once in September 2015 and again in January. In each case, he pleaded guilty or did not contest the charges, court records show.

His attorney, Joe Salinas, could not be reached for comment.

Later the same day Gonzalez-Turquiz was arrested, Squad 13 made a second arrest. About 11:35 p.m., a 34-year-old Houston man suffered severe head trauma after being run over by a car during an argument.

Rescue personnel took the victim to Memorial Hermann Hospital. Police arrested Monte Justus Pounds, 35. He has a lengthy rap sheet dating back to 1999, and previously pleaded guilty to drug possession, theft and assaulting a family member, court records show.

A lawyer is not yet listed for Pounds' most recent case. Mary Acosta, a Harris County public defender who represented him previously, could not be reached for comment.

The two cases are just a fraction of what lies ahead for a group Acevedo nicknamed the "Lucky 13," while making an innocuous joke to a reporter.

Since then, the investigators have embraced the name and created a slogan to go along with it.

"We make our own luck," Meeler said.

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